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The High Price Of Career Lies

One reader who faked her age when she applied for a job thought she’d have a better shot if she pretended to be four years younger. That lie, which escaped the company’s detection, caught up with her 12 years down the line when her employer offered an early retirement package. People 55 and older were eligible for the buyout. She couldn’t take advantage of it since company records showed she was four years too young.

Most often, you don’t need a lie to get ahead. But maybe you wish your record had a little more sparkle. Longingly, you look back on the job that went to someone else, the company you didn’t get to work for, the title you could never claim. Next time you feel a twinge of regret about goals you never reached, though, tally up the other side of the equation. In light of all you have done, it really shouldn’t matter.

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You don’t even have to go as far as lying to make people suspicious. A common mistake is exaggerating responsibilities at previous jobs. (There are vice presidents and there are vice presidents If you were in charge of marketing and shipping, expect someone to ask exactly how many employees were at that company. If it was just you and your mom, might as well admit it.

Lying is career suicide. In today’s world, where transparency and honesty is in much demand, lying goes right to the heart of your credability — if you don’t have at least have that going for you, it’s over.

So why is it so much of a bigger deal to fudge about exact words on one’s degree than it is to claim to be Native American (do you hear me Elizabeth Warren?). It would help me much more career-wise to be able to claim Native American heritage than it would to fudge any degree.

With a completely transparent Web 2.0 world, it is thankfully a smarter, lazier, and easier way to live by telling the truth. As consultants, how many times do you bump into people you know at the airport?

I think we all know of people who interviewed their former boss for a position with their company.

Honesty is for those who don’t like to remember things. So much simpler. Amen.

It does not necessarily take a lie or fudged mark to make something wrong. There are many instances where a more qualified person can lose an opportunity. I was very familiar with the vetting process one City Council utilized and it was not discovered until I was deposed that the entire council was involved in “masking” the appearance of impropriety. You would think that the Justice Department would have been suspicious of why their own counsel requested to be replaced early on. Rather than have an unsavory honor.

Being dishonest is certainly not a good character trait. But, I’m afraid this goes on all the time when people are in a hurry to get what they want and feel that “shortcuts” are just the price of doing business. So this kind of thing goes on all the time and many, many people completely get away with it and are even rewarded for doing it. I still remember a serious instance of “embellishment” that occurred in connection with the 2004 Siemens Science Competition. In this case (fiasco?), the winning project was neither “an out of the box breakthrough”, nor any kind of “new technology” (as claimed). Never the less, even after this became known to all involved, it was covered up rather than disclosed, including by the news media that helped to greatly hype the event (and therefore had a great deal of credibility to lose). Welcome to Harvard??!! (well, it’s one way to get in anyway).

He didn’t get in trouble for lying – he got in trouble because he was working for a company that cannot get it right, and they needed someone to blame. I highly doubt that we would even know about this if Yahoo was tripling it’s value. Who cares if he lied, or what his qualifications are – what matters is can he (or anyone) do the job.

And it doesn’t just make him look bad – it makes the entire Yahoo administration look stupid. With their deep pockets and resources, they couldn’t find this out before they hired him? No wonder they just can’t make it.

Some 30+ years a wise old mentor of mine gave me this advice—”Never Trade a Career for a Moment.” Write it down and live it.

Sadly, I know a company (can’t say the name for fear of retribution) that let such arrogant actions and activities go unscathed –if you were an executive. What CEO could pull off being intoxicated and having a “who’s got the best ass” contest among other inappropriate behaviors, at a sales conference, and get away with it solely because the executive team didn’t have the cajones to take appropriate action. SAD–VERY SAD! And such people want our respect? Clearly, some companies have a higher value system. Sure wish Moses wouldn’t have dropped that tablet about fair play and equity.

Legally, at least, nothing really unless it maybe has to do with embellishing things to get a high security position. If someone makes lots of money and dupes investors, then there might also be something that could be done (unjust enrichment and/or investment fraud), but if it’s just considered engaging in permissible hyperbole, or “embellishment” of one’s accomplishments, then there is nothing in the law that prevents this. In England (and Europe?) I believe they do have some more extensive morality/ethics laws, but these don’t exist in the U.S. You cannot sue someone in the U.S. for just being ethically challenged (or even completely unethical) – they have to have broken an actual U.S. law. Fortunately, or unfortunately we don’t have ethics laws here.